Bottle cap



July 7, 1959 w. A. HOEF BOTTLE CAP Filed Dec. 10, 1956 INVENTOR.

WILLIAM A. HOEF ATTORNEYS BoTr-LE CAP William A. Hoef, Oak Park, Mich.Application December 10, 1956, Serial No. 627,431 1 Claim. (Cl. 215-41This invention relates to bottle caps and more particularly to a cap fortemporarily tightly sealing the top of a crown or soft drink bottle andformed to prevent the escape of gases contained in the fluid within thebottle under normalpressure but to release and permit the escape of gasunder abnormally high pressures.

The conventional crown or soft drink bottle available onthe market, hasa standard size mouth provided with a glass lip atthe opening of thebottle. When the bottle is packaged with beer or a soft drink or thelike, a metal cap is clamped over the lip and this cap seals the gascontained within the carbonated drink. However, once the bottle isopened, the metal cap can no longer be used to tightly seal the bottlefor preventing the gas from escaping from the partially used contents ofthe bottle. Many types of temporary bottle caps are currently availableon the market, but almost none of them are successful in tightly sealingthe bottle to completely prevent the escape of gas therefrom. There areone or two mechanical type metal caps available which tightly seal thetop of the bottle, but are so constructed that in the event of a rise inpressure within the bottle, such as due to the exposure of the bottle toa warm atmosphere near a room radiator or the like, the high pressuregas cannot escape through the cap but causes the bottle to explode.

Thus, it is an object of this invention to provide an inexpensive easilyconstructed and easily handled bottle cap which can be easilymanipulated upon the top of a standard crown or soft drink bottle andwhich will completely prevent the escape of any gas from the partiallyused contents of the bottle but at the same time will release upon anyabnormal rise of pressure within the bottle to prevent the bottle fromexploding.

Another object of this invention is to provide such a cap with apermanent magnet secured thereto, so that the cap may be stored upon anyhandy metal object, such as a refrigerator wall, when not in use.

These and other objects of my invention will become apparent uponreading the following description, of which the attached drawings form apart.

With reference to the attached drawings,

Fig. 1 illustrates the cap secured to the top of a standard soft drinkbottle with only the neck of the bottle being shown, and with the capand bottle shown in approximately double their normal size.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary top view of the bottle cap taken in thedirection of arrow 2 on Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the cap and bottle neck taken in thedirection of arrows 33 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary view of the underside of the cap taken in thedirection of arrow 4 of Fig. 1.

Figs. 5 and 6 are cross-sectional views of modifications of the cap.

In Figs. 1 and 3, the neck of a conventional glass crown or soft drinkbottle, generally designated as 10, is illustrated. As illustrated inFig. 3, an annular lip or head 11 is formed at the mouth 12 of thebottle. This construction is conventional and just about all crown orsoft drink ice :bottles on the market today are provided with thisstandard size and shape construction.

Once the conventional metal bottle cap is removed so that the consumercan use the contents of the bottle, the

gas contained within the soft drink immediately begins to escape. Wherepart of the contents are not immediately used up, but instead remain inthe bottle, the bottle cap of this invention generally designated as 15may be used to tightly seal the top of the bottle to prevent the escapeof the gas. This bottle cap is formed in a flattened, truncated, conicalshape having a conical wall 16, a small top base 17 and a large bottombase 18.

The cap is preferably constructed of a plastic material characterized bybeing relatively stiff but somewhat resilient. One plastic materialwhich has been found to be suitable for this construction is apolyethylene plastic manufactured by the Koppers Comp-any, Inc.of'Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and identified by this company as DylanPolyethylene 3700. The cap may be molded from this plastic or cut andmachined from bar stock. Another suitable material is Du Pontspolyethylene Alathon, formula 22.

Obviously, many other types of plastics would be suitable for thisconstruction so long as the plastic itself is resilient enough to bebent and forced over the top of the bottle but at the same time issufficiently stiff to hold its form and to tightly retain its shape whenon the bottle mouth.

An annular groove 19 is cut into the bottom base 18 and is shaped toconform to the lip 11 of the conventional soft drink bottle. The mouth20 of annular groove 19 is undercut at 21 to form an annular tip 22 andis also relieved at 23 opposite the tip. The relief cut 23 permits thecap to be placed, in a tipped position against the bottle lip 11, andthen by the application of manual pressure to the cap, the lip 11 slipsby the flexible tip 22 and the undercut 21 until the lip is squarelywithin the groove 19. The groove 19 completely envelops the lip top,inside, and outside surfaces to seal the lip in three places.

The cap base 18 is formed as a flattened, truncated cone 26 from therelief cut 23 to its peripheral edge. The center portion 27, of the capbase may be formed in a concave shape as shown in Fig. 3. This concaveshape is best suited to hold against gases under pressure and further,in cooperation with the undercut 21, makes the tip 22 quite flexible.Thus, a fourth seal is formed between the flexible tip 22 and thebottle.

It is also contemplated to cut a disk or conical shaped pocket 29 intothe cap small base 17 and in substantial axial alignment with the axisof the cap body 15. A disk type permanent magnet 30 is slipped into thepocket 29 and is frictionally held in the pocket, so that the cap whennot in use may be placed up against any metal object handy to thehouseholder and will remain there until it is next needed for use.

Operation In operation, the mouth 20 of the annular groove is alignedwith the lip or head 11 of a soft drink bottle but with the cap tippedrelative to the bottle and the cap is forced onto the bottle by theapplication of manual pressure. When on the bottle, the cap forms a fourway seal with the bottle: At the top of the lip, at the inside, and atthe outside of the lip, and at the resilient tip 22. With this sealing,no gas can escape from the bottle.

There are times, however, when the pressure within the bottle builds upto the point where the bottle itself may explode. This has happened incases where a partially used soft drink bottle was placed near aradiator or other warm object in a room. If the cap is so tight as notto permit the escape of gas under abnormal pressure, then there is adanger of the bottle itself exploding.

However, in this case upon an abnormal rise in pressure, the cap popsopen. The reduced cross-section between the. annular groove 19 and theconical wall 16 provides a degree of flexibility which permits the capto pop open,

reduced cross-section may be used for a specific pressure point at whichthe cap is to pop open.

Modifications Fig. shows a modification made identical with theembodiment of Fig. 3', with the exception that the edge of the basecenter part 27a is tapered at 35 and the flexible tip 22 is omitted.

Fig.- 6 is likewise identical to Fig.3, but here the base center part27b is uncut and is left with a straight peripheral edge 36. Inaddition, the magnet is omitted.

This invention may be further developed within the scope of thefollowing attached claim and accordingly, it is desired that theforegoing description be read as being merely illustrative of anoperative embodiment of this invention and not in a strictly limitingsense.

I claim:

A bottle cap for temporarily closing and tightly sealing the top of abottle of the type having an annular bead formed on the top thereof,comprising a body formed in the shape of an upper and a lowerfrustro-conical portion, both integrally joined at their large bases andboth being flattened, thus providing a cross-sectional shape in the formof two trapezoids, one inverted relative to the other and joined attheir large bases with the conical wall surfaces each extending awayfrom the large bases at a sharp acute angle and with the angle formed bythe two conical walls meeting being an acut angle also, and with H thealtitudes being considerably smaller than the base daimeters; acontinuous annular groove formed in the lower conical portion at thearea where the small base would otherwise joint the side wall, thegroove being of a cross-sectional shape which corresponds to thecrosssection of a bottle head, the plane passing through the widestpoint of the groove being within the upper portion and slightly abovethe large bases, and the groove forming a narrowed cross-section of bodymaterial between the groove bottom and the wall of the upper conicalportion .near the junction between this Wall and the small base of theupper conical portion; the body being formed of a relatively stiff, butslightly flexible, plastic material.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,747,760 Duffy Feb. 18, 1930 2,486,364 Simmons Oct. 25, 1949 2,758,743Smith Aug. 14, 1956 FOREIGN PATENTS 464,561 Italy July 9, 1951 1,057,153France Oct. 28, 1953

